Are you in compliance?

The Filing Cabinet

"The Filing Cabinet," which covers compliance with the Dodd-Frank Act and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as well as other regulatory action from the Securities and Exchange Commission, executive compensation, and shareholder activism, is written by CW staff writer Joe Mont. Mont welcomes questions, comments, and statements from readers on SEC filing matters and will address them here when appropriate. Readers can contact him at joe.mont@complianceweek.com.

Compliance and risk practitioners, beware: A new report from the U.S. Department of State detailing aspects of the human rights situation in North Korea has listed Chol Hyun Construction as a company that practices state-sponsored slavery.

Franchise business owners from 19 states have joined forces to demand clarity on joint employee status, fearing that federal, state, and judicial interpretations may differ. In letters to Congress, they also demand the passage of legislation to provide related assurances.

With President Trump likely to sign away the CFPB’s ban on mandatory arbitration clauses, Director Richard Cordray has lobbed the political equivalent of a Hail Mary pass: a direct, personal letter seeking reconsideration.

In a letter to Republican party officials, the American Institute of CPAs outlines tax reform priorities and concerns. “If Congress lowers the income tax rates for C corporations, all types of business entities should receive a rate reduction,” it says.

The CFPB has outlined new “principles” for financial services firms when they aggregate consumer data and share it with third parties, even if those agreements facilitate services requested by customers.

The Active Cyber Defense Certainty Act is bipartisan legislation that would allow companies to deploy “defensive measures that exceed the boundaries of one’s network in order to monitor, identify, and stop attackers.”

The Financial Services Committee has advanced a slate of 22 bills. Among the topics: data protections for the SEC's Consolidated Audit Trail, the thresholds for SIFI designations, supporting emerging growth companies, and killing the Department of Labor’s fiduciary duty rule.

As the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency increasingly injects itself as a regulatory buffer between banks, financial services firms and the CFPB, Senate Democrats are questioning the legality and authority of Acting Comptroller Keith Noreika.

The SEC has proposed a plan, as mandated by the FAST Act, to simplify and modernize the Regulation S-K disclosure regime. New rule amendments would also accelerate the use of Legal Entity Identifiers by public companies.

A new report alleges that President Trump’s deregulatory agenda could boost the bottom line of his businesses. It coincides with the introduction of the DRAIN the Swamp Act, intended to “bring transparency" to how government officials profit from deregulation.

The EPA has announced its efforts to repeal the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan are now underway. The Trump administration estimates the proposed repeal could provide up to $33 billion in avoided compliance costs in 2030.

A massive, soon-to-launch SEC database faces renewed scrutiny and delay demands in response to a recently disclosed cyber-breach.That attack, and other breaches, are also serving as the catalyst for both new and resurrected legislation in Congress.

Four years in the making, and the penultimate step in a six-year plan, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board has opened its latest "Exposure Draft Standards" for 79 industries for public review.